“High-risk” migrants were allowed to enter the US at the border without proper ID and now roam the country, a scathing new report by the Homeland Security inspector general claims.
In many cases, the migrants were trusted to provide their own personal information before being allowed in and are now free to fly on domestic airlines without identification because of lax oversight by immigration authorities and the Transportation Safety Administration, the 37-page report reveals.
“TSA’s vetting and screening procedures do not eliminate the risk that noncitizens who may pose a threat to fellow passengers could board domestic flights,” the report said.
“Under current processes, [Customs and Border Protection] and [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] cannot ensure they are keeping high-risk noncitizens without identification from entering the country.”
The details emerged one day after DHS warned that the threat environment in the US will “remain high” in the coming year, with migrants with “terrorism ties” contributing to the elevated level.
In the inspector general’s report, the office said immigration agents were observed processing 53 migrants entering the country in Nogales, Ariz., and San Ysidro, Calif., and at border stations in Nogales and Yuma, Ariz. and Chula Vista and Imperial Beach in California, in April 2023.
The inspectors saw the agents review documents, collect DNA samples and conduct interviews with the migrants, then enter biographical data into an immigration database.
But seven of the migrants had no identification, making for 13% of the total group.
“Because immigration officers are not required to document whether a noncitizen presented identification in the databases, the data we obtained may be incomplete,” the IG report found.
“Therefore, neither CBP nor ICE could determine how many of the millions of noncitizens seeking entry in the United States each year entered without identification and whose self-reported biographic information was accepted,” the report said.
It said the immigration agents “acknowledged the risks of allowing noncitizens without identification into the country,” and yet neither agency “conducted a comprehensive risk assessment.”
However, the report said transportation safety agents rely largely on information from the two immigration agencies to conduct “requisite background checks” at the nation’s airports.
The report offers three recommendations, including that CBP conduct “a comprehensive analysis of the risk” before allowing migrants into the country, and conduct a similar review before allowing migrants without identification into ICE custody.
Finally, it recommends that the TSA beef up its procedures “to mitigate risks.”
Officials at Homeland Security refuted the inspector general’s internal review, arguing that the report “contains inaccurate statements, lacks important context and is potentially misleading.”
In a written response, DHS said border agents grill migrants wanting to enter the country.
“If the noncitizen is unable to provide an appropriate document which authorizes entry into, transit through or residence in the United States, including a document establishing their identity, that noncitizen will be deemed by CPB as — at minimum — inadmissible to the United States,” the response said.
DHS said migrants deemed “inadmissible” could then face removal proceedings.
However, the agency acknowledged that it is understaffed amid “record numbers of noncitizens” trying to cross the border into the US.
“There are several reasons why categorical detention of all individuals subject to detention does not occur,” DHS said, “such as the fact that DHS would need more resources than are currently available to detain all inadmissible noncitizens without identification documents encountered at the border.”